Captain British Army

49

Married

‘Hazeldene’, Sylvan Way, Bognor Regis

MLWS

Evades

Captain Charles Melvill Gonne (b. 1862, Hove – d. 1926, Ringwood) spent part of his childhood in Hove before training at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and becoming an officer in the Royal Artillery. His grandfather had been a Major-General in India and his father was a member of the Indian Civil Service.
By 1894, Charles had married his wife Josephine and they had one son who was born in South Africa. By 1901, the family had returned to Britain where the couple became active suffrage campaigners, with Charles belonging to the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage and the Men’s Political Union for Women’s Enfranchisement (see separate entry for Josephine). In 1910, the press reported Charles’s arrest at the Black Friday demonstrations outside Parliament. A policeman seized the woman accompanying Charles, to which he responded: ‘You may take me, but you shall not take her.’ He was accused of hitting a policeman, which he denied, and was discharged without evidence being offered. In a later incident, Charles was badly hurt when stewards ejected him from a Liberal meeting, injuring his spine. In 1911, Charles’s address on the electoral register was Fernshaw Mansions, Fernshaw Road, Chelsea, and the couple were active in the King’s Road branch of the WSPU. However, by the autumn they had moved to Sylvan Way, Bognor Regis, West Sussex continuing their campaigning (the map location is approximate). In October, Josephine hosted an “At Home” for a local suffrage society during which Charles spoke about his work for the Men’s Committee for Justice to Women. No record has been found of Charles, his wife or son in the 1911 census so it is possible that they evaded it. In 1913, Charles was arrested again for refusing to pay property taxes on behalf of his wife. He was imprisoned in Lewes, East Sussex and went on hunger-strike. He was released within 48 hours due to ill health and his name appears on the Roll of Honour of Suffragette Prisoners 1905-1914. The Vote commented that “Things have come to a pretty pass, when the only use England has for a courageous and honest gentleman is to break his back and fling him into prison.” During this period, Charles was also on the Special Reserve list of army officers and in the First World War he was promoted to the rank of Major. His son, Vere Carol Melvill Gonne (1895-1961), supported his parent’s campaigning and continued the family’s military tradition by joining the Royal Garrison Artillery. Contributed by art historian, Dr Diana Wilkins.